Dining With the Despicables

We'll read through just a few verses here. Let's

pray, and then we'll get started. God, we come

to you tonight, and we thank you that we have

the freedom to come into your house. God, your

word is good, and I pray that you would help

us to grow in it tonight. I pray that your Holy

Spirit would just help our minds to listen to

you tonight. that you would help us to pay attention

and to be free of distractions and worries. God,

I pray that you would be with me, that I would

be able to preach and teach in a way that brings

glory and honor to you, dear Lord. There is no

good word I can say if you do not speak, dear

Lord, through me. So I pray that you are the

one who does the talking tonight, that you would

lead us and just give us a good night in your

word. In Jesus' name I pray it. Amen. This is

close to the beginning of Jesus' ministry when

we see these events take place. When we get into

the book of Mark, Mark really just kind of hits

the ground running. There's a lot of these stories

that Mark doesn't give a lot of details on. A

lot of the things that we see in Mark chapter

Mark 1 · chapter mention

1 are just very briefly gone through. Now we

see... More details of these things in some of

the other gospel accounts. But Mark is, of course,

a much shorter book than the others. And part

of that is because he doesn't go into a lot of

detail. At this point in Jesus' ministry, he

has been going around and he has been doing a

lot of work, a lot of casting out demons we see

toward the beginning of Mark, a lot of healing

the sick, and the crowds are just flocking to

him as he's doing the work. And he's out and

he's trying to preach and teach to people. And

the people recognize that there's something different

about Jesus, that he is one who preaches with

authority. That not only does he preach with

authority, but his very words have authority.

That those who have been possessed by demons

that have likely been this way for years, when

Jesus comes onto the scene, he is able to free

them of that instantly. And so as the crowds

begin to see Jesus' preaching and the miracles

that he's doing, The crowds begin to follow Jesus.

And as Jesus is beginning his ministry, we see

as he begins to call these different people to

come alongside him. These are his disciples or

his apostles. And in this passage that we read

tonight, we see when Jesus called Levi or Matthew,

same person, might be a different name, different

books. Go by a different name. It's okay. We

can understand. Sometimes even people we know,

they may have multiple names that people know

them by. And so when you hear Levi or Matthew,

it's talking about the same person. Verse 13.

Then Jesus went out again beside the sea. The

whole crowd was coming to him, and he taught

them. Then moving on, he saw Levi, the son of

Alphaeus, sitting at the tax office. And he said

to him, Follow me. So he got up and followed

him. Now, Jesus had a similar experience to when

he called Simon Peter. He called Simon Peter

and Andrew, and he told them the same thing.

Y 'all follow me, James and John. Y 'all come

on and follow me. And Mark doesn't give many

details other than that they followed him, that

they left their livelihoods behind, that they

left their fishing boats behind, or in this case,

their job at the tax office behind, and followed

Jesus. Now, I believe that Jesus knew what he

was doing here. Now, we don't know much about

Matthew, but we know that Jesus called him, so

there's a pretty good chance that Matthew was

a godly man. But there was another issue with

Matthew that was a big issue, and that was that

Matthew was a tax collector. Now, notice when

Jesus picks his disciples, when you read through

the Bible, Jesus doesn't go to the synagogue

and pick the chief priest. He doesn't pick the

highest officials and the authorities within

the synagogue. Instead, Jesus picks normal people.

He picks fishermen and he picks tax collectors.

And of all the people to pick, why would you

pick a tax collector? We're not very liked, and

even we can relate to that today. Show of hands,

does anybody in here enjoy paying taxes to the

IRS? Raise your hand. We have one person that

enjoys paying taxes. No, I don't. Oh, you don't?

Oh, okay, you don't. Let's try this again. If

you enjoy paying taxes to the IRS, raise your

hand high. All right, for everybody listening

online, there's no hands raised this time. We

don't like paying taxes. Even if the IRS agents

that we know are the most friendly, nicest Christian

people in the world, we don't want to pay taxes.

But the problem is, especially when we look at

these tax collectors in the Bible, is that they

weren't always the best guys. They did a job

that nobody liked, which was bad enough. But

then on top of that, they would take a little

off the top. So it would be something like this.

So Rome would say, you need to collect $100 from

every person and bring back to us. And so it's

the tax collector's responsibility to make sure

that they bring back $100 from every person.

But the tax collector, as long as he got $100,

well, if he got a little extra, guess whose pocket

that went into? That went into his pocket. So

if he can get $120 from everybody, he gets $20

from everybody he collects taxes from. So he

goes to you and he says, hey, your taxes are

$120. And he pockets the $20 and he gives the

$100 to Rome, and Rome doesn't really care as

long as they get their share. They don't really

care about what the tax collector's doing. And

so tax collectors did not have a very good reputation

because they were known for cheating people.

You may recall the story of Nicodemus, not Nicodemus,

Zacchaeus, the wee little man who wanted to see

Jesus and he was too short and he climbed up

a tree. He was the chief tax collector. And when

he had this encounter with Jesus, and Jesus obviously

changed his heart, and he said, I'll give away

half of what I own, and if I've defrauded anyone,

I'll pay back four times what I've taken from

them. And so tax collectors weren't really the

best of people. And of all the people for Jesus

to pick to serve, to be one of his 12, I mean,

these were the guys that Jesus was going to pour

into. to really teach them, to really lead them,

to really show them the example, so that when

he was gone, it was going to be their job to

lead other people toward Jesus, to make sure

the gospel was going to hit the ground running.

These are the people that Jesus picked, and one

of them was a tax collector. Now, Jesus was probably

somewhat strategic in doing this. Jesus probably

didn't do this by coincidence. Perhaps Jesus

did this to remind us that the kingdom of God

is for everybody. The kingdom of God is not made

up of the religious. The kingdom of God is made

up of the righteous. The kingdom of God is made

up of those who have faith in him, who come from

all walks of life, whether Jew, whether Gentile,

whether priest, whether tax collector, whoever

you may be, the determining factor is not your

job. The determining factor is... Do you have

faith in Jesus Christ? And when he comes and

when we hear of Jesus Christ and we know of Jesus

Christ and the words of Scripture and the Holy

Spirit says, follow me, do we get up and follow

Jesus? Now, the apostles did. We see here that

Matthew did. Maybe sometimes we do. Maybe sometimes

we don't. Maybe there are some things that Jesus

calls us to and we get up and we're ready to

go. Maybe there are other things and we kind

of drag our feet. We're not quite so excited

to get up and follow Jesus. But Matthew did.

And praise the Lord that Jesus uses ordinary

people. That's good news for us. That we don't

have to be anything spectacular because we are

not. But Jesus is spectacular. And our faith

in him. is what allows Jesus to do a mighty work

in us, not on our own because of who we are,

but because of who he is. And so in verse 15,

while he was reclining at the table in Levi's

house, many tax collectors and sinners were also

guests with Jesus and his disciples because there

were many who were following him. So not only

did he get Matthew to follow him here, But it

appears as though he goes back to Matthew's house,

and there in Matthew's house would have been

the people that Matthew would have typically

hung out with, which would have been other tax

collectors. And it says sinners here. It doesn't

specify what these sinners were, but the sinners

that's being talked about here, we see in the

verses to come that it's the religious group,

the Pharisees and the scribes of the Pharisees

that call out these sinners. So whatever they

did, No matter how bad it may or may not have

been, they were certainly labeled by these Pharisees

as sinners. And here Jesus is, the Son of God.

He's going around and he's doing all these wonderful

things. But there's a certain group of people,

a lot of the religious crowd, are just really

having a hard time accepting Jesus. And this

didn't help him. When Jesus called Matthew to

follow him, and then Jesus, who was coming and

preaching and doing all these things in the name

of God, when Jesus went before these tax collectors

and sinners, well, this was a big problem for

the religious crowd. Obviously, we learn a little

bit about them in that they probably didn't go

to this crowd. They had issue with this crowd.

That's what we see in the next verse. When the

scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating

with sinners and tax collectors, they asked his

disciples, why does he eat with tax collectors

and sinners? So they took some offense to this.

Now, they themselves should have been trying

to reach these same people. They should have

been telling them about the word of God. They

should have been a good example to them, but

it appears as though they were keeping their

distance from them, and they were offended that

Jesus would associate with such people. Obviously,

this religious group, these scribes of the Pharisees,

and in other gospel accounts, it mentions the

Pharisees themselves. Obviously, they didn't

like what Jesus was doing here. And so they questioned

the disciples. Why is Jesus doing this? Why is

he eating with this filth? Why is he associating

with these people, these lowly people? The religious

people must have had a little higher view of

themselves than they should have, and that's

a real problem with religion that we have to

be on guard for. Sometimes we can fall into that

trap. We can fall into that holier -than -thou

trap. Boy, we think we're doing good, and it's

so easy for us to look at other people, and we

think we are all that and a bag of chips and

all these other poor sinners and tax collectors

and all this riffraff. We don't want to have

anything to do with them, and we have to be careful

because These are the very people that Jesus

calls us to minister to. And Jesus says so in

the next verse. Verse 17. When Jesus heard this,

he told them, Those who are well don't need a

doctor, but the sick do need one. I didn't come

to call the righteous, but sinners. Now, isn't

that a beautiful, simple thing that Jesus lays

out? Jesus says, these people are lost. These

people don't know God. The Pharisees, at the

very least, they knew of God. Perhaps some of

them genuinely did follow God and seek to follow

his will and live according to his word. But

as we see throughout the life of Jesus, there

were plenty of them that didn't too. There were

plenty of them that headed up the group that

was going to get Jesus nailed to the cross. So

they knew about God. But there were plenty of

them who didn't know God. But at least the Jews

had some exposure to the Word. At least they

had exposure to the Old Testament. The Gentiles,

they didn't grow up following the Word of God,

hearing the Word of God. Maybe they had heard

some here and there. But Jesus says, these people,

these sinners as you call them, these tax collectors,

the ones that you don't want to spend any time

associating with, these are the people who are

sick. That's how Jesus refers to them. He said

they are sick. Now, when you and I get sick,

where do we go? We go to the doctor's office.

We go to the hospital. Why? Because that's where

the doctors are. When I get sick, I don't go

to the Tasty Freeze. Why? Because it's just some

people up there, and they make a good hamburger,

and they make a good milkshake, and I like going

there, but I don't go there when I get sick.

When I get sick, I don't go to the bowling alley.

When I get sick, I go to the doctor. I go to

the hospital. Why? Because that's where the doctor

is. And sick people go to the doctor. So Jesus

said, look, I go to these people because the

sick people need a doctor. And he continues on.

I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners.

Jesus acknowledged that there were some. who

were righteous. There were some who were doing

right. There were certainly some who were self

-righteous, who thought they were doing right.

There were others who really were righteous and

really were seeking God. And Jesus said, this

group knows. They know the word of God. They

know the commands of God. But it's my job to

go out here and reach the lost. And this has

not changed for you and I today. This example

that Jesus gives us has not changed. We are called

to... reach the lost. Now, it is good. It is

so good. We come together as brothers and sisters

in Christ. We come together and we have eatings

and we have all these get -togethers. And a lot

of times at our get -togethers, it might be predominantly

brothers and sisters in Christ or maybe 100 %

brothers and sisters in Christ sometimes. And

there may not be any lost people in the bunch.

And that's good that we do those things. It's

good that we associate and we praise God together.

But our real mission Our real call is that we

get out among the sinners and the tax collectors,

the people that we really don't want to go see.

Now, there's some people that we say, oh, yeah,

I'm going to talk to them. They're not a believer,

but they're okay. I don't mind going to talk

to them. But what we really need to think about

is you need to think for a second and think about

that person that you really don't want to go

talk to. That person is pretty bad and pretty

nasty and pretty dirty and pretty sinful. The

ones you really don't want to go talk to, well,

those are the ones that's being talked about

here. Those are the people that we need to try

to reach. Those are the ones that we can make

all kinds of excuses as to why we don't want

to go see them or why we don't want to associate

with them. But Jesus says, In Matthew chapter

Matthew 18 · chapter mention

18, when he's talking about dealing with a brother

that sins against you, he says, go to him. If

he still won't listen, take another and go to

him. And you present it before the church. And

Jesus says something interesting there. He says,

if this person refuses to listen and repent of

their sinfulness, he says to treat them like

an unbeliever and a tax collector. Now, isn't

that interesting? Jesus says one who professes

to be a brother but continues to live in sin,

he says treat them like a tax collector. Why

is that? Because a tax collector, in this case,

kind of using the same idea here, is one who

is sinful, one who needs to hear the good news,

one who needs to be taught what is right. And

that's what Jesus calls us to do. If there's

a brother who strays, then hey. We need to treat

them like an unbeliever and a tax collector.

We want to tell them the truth of the gospel.

We want to say, hey, you're sick. I want to show

you who the doctor is. When we encounter people

on the street or friends or family or whoever

it may be, we want to be those who say, look,

I want to teach you and preach to you and show

you the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that's what

Jesus calls us to do. We do that in a variety

of ways. It may not always be words we say. It's

not like we have to sit down and preach a sermon

to everybody that we see. But our very actions

may be enough to lead someone to Christ. The

love that we show, the compassion that we show.

You never know the little actions that you do,

what kind of difference they're going to make

in people's lives. And so Jesus says, this is

what I've come for. I've come to reach the lost.

The sick. And Jesus didn't shy away from that.

Yeah, he spent time in the synagogues. He spent

time with the religious people. And some of them

got it and some of them didn't get it. But Jesus

said, look, I've come to do the work of the Father.

I've come to teach people the truth. And I have

come to save sinners. And praise God for you

and I that he did. Because that's us. Praise

God that Jesus came to our table. When we were

nothing more than a bunch of sinners. Just like

those tax collectors. And that Jesus chooses

us. Not because we're awesome. Not because we're

so amazing. Not because he looks at us and be

like, man, you are such a godly person. I'm going

to pick you. He picks us in spite of us. He picks

us if we just have faith. If we're just willing

when he comes and says, follow me. If we are

just willing, he picks us. And he makes us into

the men and the women that he wants us to be

to follow his example. Let's pray. God, we thank

you for your good word, and I pray that you would

help us, dear Lord, not to fall into that trap

to think we are ever holier than thou, dear Lord.

We want to try to be obedient to you and follow

your word and follow your example, dear Lord,

and listen to you, and sometimes maybe we do

a better job of that than others. But, dear Lord,

we never want to think that we're better than

anyone else, dear Lord. We are sinners and tax

collectors in this room tonight, dear Lord. But

we thank you that Jesus came to die for us. We

thank you that Jesus calls us tonight. Just as

he called his disciples all those years ago,

dear Lord, through your word, through the Holy

Spirit, Jesus still calls to us today if we would

just follow him. And I pray that we would, dear

Lord. I pray that we would follow him. I pray

that we'd follow every example, even when it

means going to reach to those that may be tough.

It may be hard for us to want to... I want to

go out to some people, dear Lord, but let us

not turn a blind eye to them. But let us be faithful

to love others just as Jesus has loved us. And

I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.